There's more mystery surrounding Ghost of Tsushima than any other of 2020's most anticipated games. The PS4-exclusive game from inFamous series developer Sucker Punch has received few trailers in the time since its 2017 announcement, leaving PlayStation fans mostly out of the loop regarding the game's setting, story, and gameplay. Still, the interviews and the trailers Sony has released give fans enough info to get a good idea of what Ghost of Tsushima is all about.
Following PS4 launch title inFamous: Second Son, Sucker Punch's last release was 2014's inFamous: First Light, a standalone DLC for that game. That put a three-year gap between Sucker Punch's last release and the announcement of Ghost of Tsushima, and the developer has been quietly working on the game since. A development update in 2018 showed Sucker Punch working with real samurai to ensure authenticity, but few other behind-the-scenes details are available (besides rumors of an internal Ghost of Tsushima delay to the second half of 2020).
Recent trailers and interviews fans may have missed confirm plenty of details about Ghost of Tsushima, however, so a surprising amount of information is known about it already. Here are the details so far about Ghost of Tsushima's release date, story, and gameplay.
Ghost of Tsushima Release Date
While fans still don't have a specific date to look forward to, Sony finally revealed at The Game Awards 2019 that Ghost of Tsushima is releasing in summer 2020. If that means July or August 2020, it would give credit to the earlier rumors of an internal delay to the second half of the year. Regardless, Sony will likely announce a set release date soon - possibly at the rumored February PS5 reveal.
Ghost of Tsushima Story
A set of E3 2018 Ghost of Tsushima details revealed the game follows Jin Sakai, a feudal Japanese samurai-turned-"samurai commando," who appears to be seeking revenge on Mongolian soldiers on the Japanese island of Tsushima. The game takes place in an open-world environment, but it will feature a linear main quest for players to take on, along with various side missions. Much of what has been shown so far focuses on these few details and on Ghost of Tsushima's atmosphere. The game's Akira Kurosawa inspiration is extremely apparent, as trailers have been full of both epic landscapes and moments of quiet. Sucker Punch has also said the story focuses on "good people, in dark times, doing bad things."
Ghost of Tsushima Gameplay
Jin's fade into smoke at the end of the Paris Games Week 2017 reveal trailer seemed to indicate Ghost of Tsushima would include some kind of inFamous-like supernatural powers, but Sucker Punch has since revealed that there is no supernatural element to Ghost of Tsushima. As shown off in Ghost of Tsushima's E3 2018 gameplay, combat is instead focused on "lethal precision," where one or two sword strikes will down an opponent. The game has an over-the-shoulder camera perspective, from which players control Jin to dispatch enemies with brutal ease. Some of Jin's most devastating attacks come as a part of Ghost of Tsushima's stealth gameplay: Jin can perform Assassin's Creed-like "death from above" take-downs, entering a slowed "bullet time" state afterward to pick off any remaining enemies nearby.
All this talk of Ghost of Tsushima's methodical, skill-based combat may sound like it would come with the challenge of something like Bloodborne, but Sucker Punch has noted that, as a "mainstream" game, Ghost of Tsushima won't be that difficult. This is perhaps due to Ghost of Tsushima's progression system, through which players will be able to upgrade Jin's abilities and arsenal with items like grappling hooks for climbing and smoke bombs for disorienting enemies. These abilities help complete Jin's transformation from a rule-following warrior into the aforementioned samurai commando.
Ghost of Tsushima will release for PS4 sometime in summer 2020.